ACTOR
Montgomery Clift
39 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (39)
- #001
In his autobiography, Marlon Brando, who called him "friend," says Clift was a tormented soul addicted to alcohol and to chloral hydrate, a depressant and sedative he took. On the set of The Young Lions (1958), he warned Clift that he was destroying himself the way Brando's alcoholic mother had done. For his part, Clift always supported Brando as an actor, even when Brando's career began to falter after Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).
- #002
Clift had so many health problems on the set of Freud (1962) that Universal sued him over the cost of the film's production delays. During the trial the film opened and was such a great success that Clift's lawyers argued the film did well because of his involvement. Clift won a lucrative settlement.
- #003
When he heard of James Dean's death, Montgomery Clift vomited instantly. Although Clift had never met Dean, he later admitted that Dean's death had a profound effect on him.
- #004
Montgomery Clift is one of six actors nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for their screen debut. The other five are Orson Welles, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, Paul Muni and James Dean.
- #005
Although he did not much like her husband Richard Burton, Clift was a close friend of Elizabeth Taylor, and the feeling was mutual. Clift once said, "Richard Burton doesn't act, he just recites."
- #006
As the actor's off-screen behavior became more erratic and unpredictable in the 1960s, several of his close colleagues, among them Kevin McCarthy, began to abandon him. Elizabeth Taylor was a rare exception; she stood by Clift until the end of his life.
- #007
On the set of The Young Lions (1958), after his co-stars Clift and Dean Martin had their "shot," Marlon Brando insisted on doing his own stunt fall and dislocated his shoulder. Seeing Brando in pain, Clift offered him a swig from the thermos he always carried with him. The combination of vodka and prescription drugs in the thermos helped Brando get through the ordeal.
- #008
In "Monty" (1977), Robert LaGuardia's first published biography, LaGuardia describes how uncomfortable Clift was when he first met his From Here to Eternity (1953) co-star Burt Lancaster on set. Lancaster was in awe of Monty and was so nervous that he actually trembled during his first scenes (as also noted in Lancaster's biography).
- #009
Montgomery Clift turned down the role in Rio Bravo (1959) that would have reunited him with his Red River (1948) co-star John Wayne.
- #010
Montgomery Clift was close friends with Elizabeth Taylor, Kevin McCarthy, Marilyn Monroe and Roddy McDowall.
- #011
According to author Michael Munn, Montgomery Clift was picked up by police while wandering dazed through Hollywood. The actor was reportedly naked at the time and remembered nothing of what led to his being found.
- #012
Montgomery Clift spoke French, German and Italian fluently.
- #013
Was Montgomery Clift the choice to play Elizabeth Taylor's closeted gay husband, Major Weldon Penderton, in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)? He died before filming began and was replaced by Marlon Brando, once considered his only rival as a handsome leading man and also a great actor.
- #014
In 1950s America, Montgomery Clift was the only actor who interested Marlon Brando. Brando told Clift that they should challenge each other, since rivalry between actors is healthy.
- #015
Montgomery Clift was James Dean's idol.
- #016
For most of his adult life, Montgomery Clift suffered from dysentery and colitis.
- #017
Clift and Frank Sinatra were once on good terms. It all ended one night when Sinatra reacted with disgust after seeing Clift approach one of the other male guests.
- #018
Montgomery Clift clashed with director Alfred Hitchcock on "I Confess," the only film they made together.
- #019
Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson managed to pull Montgomery Clift from the wreckage of his car at the scene of the accident. The actor and his close friend Kevin McCarthy were also present and gave statements to the police.
- #020
On the advice of his close friend Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift turned down William Holden's role in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Gary Cooper's role in High Noon (1952).
- #021
Footage from home movies shot by his family, including some featuring Montgomery Clift, was used in a feature-length documentary about the actor made in the 1980s.
- #022
After his nearly fatal car accident, the physical changes in Montgomery Clift developed rapidly. These included a notable weight loss.
- #023
His first professional acting job was in the play Fly Away Home in 1934 at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he appeared alongside Mary Wickes.
- #024
On February 8, 1960, Montgomery Clift was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #025
After his untimely death, Montgomery Clift was buried in the Friends Quaker Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
- #026
Since his Hollywood debut, Montgomery Clift refused to follow Hollywood convention by taking film roles to profit from his good looks. Always regarding himself first and foremost as an actor, Clift was extremely selective about his film roles.
- #027
The actor was highly selective in choosing his film roles and preferred the theater environment.
- #028
Montgomery Clift died on July 23, 1966, three months before his 46th birthday on October 17.
- #029
His father was a violent, abusive and extremely conservative bigot who did not get along with his son. As an actor, whenever Clift portrayed characters who stood up to ignorance or brutality, it was said that he drew on his father as an enemy.
- #030
Montgomery Clift was a guest at Ten Chimneys, the rural retreat in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, of Broadway legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
- #031
In the 1948 presidential election he voted for the Republican Thomas E. Dewey, but he later actively campaigned for the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election, which upset his father.
- #032
Montgomery Clift was named one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history by Empire magazine (29th place) (1995).
- #033
Montgomery Clift was named the 60th Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Entertainment Weekly.
- #034
Montgomery Clift appeared in five World War II-themed films: The Search (1948) and The Big Lift (1950), both set after the war's end; From Here to Eternity (1953), about the attack on Pearl Harbor; The Young Lions (1958), in which he played a soldier during the conflict; and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), as a war survivor.
- #035
Montgomery Clift appeared in two films set partly at Hickam Field in Honolulu: The Big Lift (1950) and From Here to Eternity (1953).
- #036
Montgomery Clift was the son of William Brooks Clift and his wife Ethel Anderson Fogg. Some biographers believe Ethel was the illegitimate daughter of Woodbury Blair by Maria Latham Anderson. Woodbury Blair was the son of Montgomery Blair (whose great-grandson took his middle name) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Woodbury, daughter of Levi Woodbury (1789-1851) of the United States Supreme Court and his wife Elizabeth Wendell Clapp. Montgomery's ancestry was English as well as more distant Scottish, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Dutch, German, French, Irish and Welsh.
- #037
Montgomery Clift was the younger brother of Brooks Clift. He was related to the actor Michael Anderson Brown.
- #038
Montgomery Clift was portrayed by Alexander Des Combes in the film Hollywood Mouth 2 (2014).
- #039
In Italy, most of Montgomery Clift's early films were dubbed by Giulio Panicali, and later by Giuseppe Rinaldi. He was occasionally dubbed by Gianfranco Bellini (The Search (1948) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)), by Nando Gazzolo (in The Young Lions (1958)), and once by Pino Locchi in Raintree County (1957).
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